I, Alex, am alone and very much wish I wasn't.

I hold my breath as another misshapen zombie ambles by my hiding place and only release it after I am absolutely sure it is gone. I am very good at holding my breath. Normally that is a point of pride for me, but right now, I'd trade that ability in heartbeat for something far more useful, such as the ability to run very, very fast or very, very quietly.

The ability to fight would be nice too, I guess... but I'll be honest. Even if I had the strength to fight them I'd probably still run and hide. I am very firmly on the ‘flight’ side of the ‘fight or flight' instinct.

Coward? No, no, I'm a pacifist.

The building I am in is a shopping centre and I am currently hiding behind the counter in a clothes store. I have been here ever since the initial panic where one person suddenly turned into a zombie and attacked the person beside her. She was just the first.

While the crowd watched in horror as she – it – began tearing at the flesh of its screaming victim, more screams rang out in the silence. I wasn't able to see exactly what happened to those other screamers, but by the way people started yelling and stampeding for the stairs, I think it's safe to say more sudden transformations transpired.

Even as people ran away from the zombies, they transformed. One moment you could be running next to a perfectly normal terrified mall patron, and the next you could be having your throat torn out by them. No one was guaranteed to stay human and that only added to the fear fuelling the crowd.

It was when someone suddenly transformed next to me that I got separated from my family. They lunged for me and I barely managed to avoid an instant death via missing chunk of throat. We both fell to the ground. The crowd avoided us so at least I didn't get trampled, but I'd much rather have been trampled than had to wrestle with a flesh eating monster.

It was only through sheer dumb luck that I won. In my struggle for life we'd somehow tumbled all the way to a fire extinguisher. There was a moment where I thought cardiac arrest would get me before the zombie could when the fire extinguisher remained where it was when I tugged at it, but it came off with another desperate pull.

I whacked the zombie across the head and the rest is history.

So here I am, hiding in a clothes store, with a dented fire extinguisher as my only weapon. I have, unfortunately, been bitten. It happened when I stopped my throat from being in the zombie's mouth by putting my arm there instead.

I have, fortunately, still remained human, although I have yet to figure out whether that is because I am immune, it takes longer to turn, or zombie bites don't turn you into zombies, in which case they are not zombies at all and I should find a new name for them to save everyone the confusion.

For now, I will move forward on the assumption that I won't be turning. Or I could just stay here, I guess. It would be so much easier to just not move.

I mull that idea over for a bit before the growl of another zombie makes me flinch. I make up my mind.

I need to at least find a better hiding place. One with food, or else I'd just hide in the back room of this clothes shop. A place without other people too, despite my desire for human company, as I have been bitten and do not wish to be killed by other survivors or turn and kill them.

First of all, I wipe my glasses. A little blood splattered on them when I was bashing that zombies head in and I have to scrub hard with the random shirt I pulled off a rack to clear it off.

Then I grab a thick jacket and put it on before leaving in search of a new base. The shopping centre is warm right now due to the heaters but who knows when they'll stop working? Gotta be prepared. I'm a Scout.

I also grab a shirt to wrap around my injured arm. It kinda hurts, but I guess the adrenaline is still keeping me from registering the worst of it. I don't actually know how adrenaline works.

I stuff a few more clothes into my backpack just in case and rearrange the contents so that nothing hits against something else to make noise.

Then I venture into the backroom to search for anything useful. There is nothing. I don't know where the employees are. If I were them I would have hid in there.

I spend a minute trying to figure out what could have happened to them.

At this point I'm just stalling.

I slap my cheeks, but quietly. Okay, Alex.

You can do this.

I LIED, I CAN'T DO THIS.

After the nth time I catch so much as a glimpse of a zombie and dive into the nearest hiding place, I admit to myself that yes, I am probably just a coward. Pacifist was just a pretty word I used to cushion my pride.

But no more. For too long, I have been oppressed by society. But no more, I say, no more! From now on, I am a proud and unabashed coward! I will not be afraid to be afraid!

...I've got to stop stalling. I creep out from my hiding place. There are no zombies in sight but I still hold my fire extinguisher out in front of me. Y'know, to fight the zombies despite knowing that I'll just end up running and hiding instead.

There's a cafe downstairs which I'm heading to. I had eaten there earlier with my immediate family and two of my many aunts and uncles.

By some miracle, I make it. A few close calls, but I get lucky. I get lucky so many times that it makes me nervous about my luck for the rest of- the rest of- whatever this is. The apocalypse?

Man, couldn't the apocalypse have happened after I got back to Australia? At least there I'd have the advantage of familiar surroundings.

A look out the window earlier confirmed that the zombies were not exclusive to the shopping centre. Cars have crashed into each other creating fires, roadblocks, and fiery roadblocks. Zombies attack people and people either run away screaming (a sensible decision) or fight back (a not so sensible decision).

At least there don't seem to be any more spontaneous zombie transformations anymore.

I peer into the cafe. Abandoned meals lie on the tables. The coffee coloured wallpaper is ripped in some places and bloodied in others. There is a faint dripping sound, the source of which I can't yet determine.

There don't appear to be any zombies but you can never be too careful. I've watched enough zombie movies to know that this is the part most likely to have a zombie jump out at the protagonist.

Goddamnit, I don't want to be the protagonist of a zombie movie.

Apprehensive, I tiptoe into the cafe, holding so tightly onto my fire extinguisher that my knuckles turn white. My anxious mind conjures up rotting flesh in the shadows of tables and chairs. On one of the tables, a large puddle of blood drops onto the floor. That's one mystery solved. I don't look too closely at it and try not to think about how whatever made it is missing.

The counter at the back of the cafe is where I dread looking the most. It's the perfect place for zombie to lie in wait behind, only jumping out when some poor schmuck (me) looks over the counter.

I take a deep breath and push my glasses up. Just like ripping off a bandaid, Alex.

I grab a fork off a table and toss it over the counter. It lands with a clang that is far too loud and I wince, half convinced that the whole shopping centre must have heard that and there is now an army of zombies zeroing in on my position.

Nothing happens.

I look behind the counter myself, and only when I see there really isn't anything hiding there do I relax.

Of course, my phone just has to choose that very moment to start buzzing.

I just about jump out of my skin and scramble to get it out of my pocket. I actually drop my fire extinguisher but kick it up with my foot back into my hands in a sick move which I can never, ever replicate.

The buzzing has stopped by the time I’ve finally got it in my hands. I unlock it, hoping that it's a message or call from my family despite knowing that I don't have a sim card.

Instead, it's a notification for the successful installation of an app I don't recognise. The name is in Chinese and the icon is some kind of purple magic circle on a black background.

Weird. Where'd it come from and why'd my phone buzz for so long if it was just a notification?

I frown, but it seems harmless so I put my phone back away. I'll examine it later when I've set up base.